mid-Heian period · ?–905?Ki no Tomonori

A mid-Heian poet, cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki, who obtained his first office only after the age of forty. He was appointed one of the compilers of the Kokinshū but appears to have died before it was completed; the anthology contains elegies for him by Tsurayuki and Mitsune. Forty-six of his poems are included, and he is one of the Thirty-Six Immortals. His Hyakunin Isshu poem, asking why cherry blossoms scatter so restlessly in the calm light of a spring day, is among the best-loved poems in the collection.